ard fare necessary to keep them alive till the day of
vengeance should come, their position seemed altogether desperate and
their fate assured.

But in the case of King Selim he had, unknown to his captors and
concealed in the folds of his turban, a ruby of great size and of
immense value. With this he hoped to be able to bribe his jailer and
effect his escape. And in fact so well did he manage that before a
week was passed he was travelling homewards in the disguise of a
merchant, accompanied by the jailer, who dared not remain in his own
country in possession of the ruby because, according to the custom
prevailing in that kingdom, all precious stones must be surrendered to
the king under penalty of death by torture. He therefore fled with
Selim, disguised as his slave.

The king had made great efforts to induce the jailer to effect the
release of the Caliph at the same time as himself, but as Haroun
Alraschid was in charge of another jailer, it could not be managed.
Selim was obliged therefore, to his great grief, to leave the Caliph to
his fate; but he hurried back to his own dominions with the utmost
speed, determined to at once return with another army to avenge the
death of the Caliph, whose life he could not hope to arrive in time to
save.

The Caliph, having about him neither jewels nor money, had no means of
propitiating his jailer or abating the rigour and severity of the
treatment to which he was subjected. Once a day only, early in the
morning, the jailer appeared, and, without opening the great heavy door
of the dungeon, he opened one panel only, and through that opening
handed to his prisoner the two small loaves, or rather, flat cakes, and
the flask of water which must supply his wants till the following
morning.

Five days had thus passed, and there seemed no possibility of the
Caliph escaping the painful and humiliating death to which he was
destined by the heathen king. The festival to be held in honour of the
gods of the country was approaching, and two days hence the people, who
were already becoming greatly excited, both by religious fury and also
by drinking great quantities of a strong and fiery spirit which they
distilled, were to be gratified by the sight of the sacrifice by
horrible tortures of their unfortunate prisoners.

Just before daybreak on the sixth day, the same morning on which Selim
and his jailer were effecting their escape, the Caliph awoke, and
thoughts of the frightfu